Fines for bin-lorry blockers

Registration numbers are being recorded of repeat offenders who leave their vehicles inconsiderately parked so that the lorries cannot pass. They will receive a Community Protection Notice Warning and then a Community Protection Notice requiring them to desist.

The council is able to determine the registered owner of a vehicle from its registration number. Failure to respond to the notice is a criminal offence which can be punishable with a fine of up to £2,500.

George Bernard, the council's head of environmental operations, said: "The council has been massively patient over this issue, but we have now reached the point where, to be fair to innocent affected parties, we need to take more strident action. We are now seeking a solution by using powers available to us under Section 43 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

"We have had certain roads, such as Rose Place and Horace Street, where badly parked vehicles have made it impossible time after time for the bin lorries to pass to collect residents' waste. This has impacted household waste, recycled material and garden waste. It is hugely frustrating for us and for residents when waste is not collected, and wastefully expensive when we have to repeatedly return to attempt to collect it.

"We have left notes on the vehicles and sent letters to all properties. We have even published registration numbers on social media in order to get drivers to move their vehicles. Despite this some of the vehicles which have blocked access have been the same vehicles on different weeks.

"Our refuse freighters appear around the same time on the same days, so we are asking residents to park considerately when they know the bin lorries are expected.

"By not letting the lorries pass they inconvenience themselves and their neighbours. Time constraints and other considerations, such as other residents' expectations, the safety of our own crews and that of other road users, means we cannot wheel each bin from one end of the street to the other, or even into a neighbouring street, to the lorry and return them to properties when the lorry cannot collect from the kerbside."